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Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

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Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#21

Post by subsection1h »

ludwigvan wrote: post #19

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined. Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase. I am leaving US on Dec 12, and t…

    Anyone have any advice for canceling the order, is it possible at all?
Might your landlord allow you to post a sheet a paper to your front door stating that you refuse delivery? This is what I did to refuse delivery of a 16GB Nexus 7 (I found a 32GB Nexus 7 for a little over $200), and it worked. I didn't need to interact with a UPS driver.

That being said, the 16GB Nexus 7 I ordered was delivered to Google on Nov 29 and I still haven't received a refund or been contacted by Google regarding my order.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#22

Post by nQuo »

Back in November after the first batch sold out within half an hour, I wanted to get a Nexus 4 to give Android another go and check out Google Now and other new features of 4.2, as iOS6 felt a bit stale despite being a big fan of the black & slate iPhone 5's industrial design. But I got tired of checking the Google Play link everyday which always read "Out of stock". So I got the iPhone 5 instead.

When the second batch became available, I ordered one for a friend, still waiting for it to ship. (it said 1-2 weeks so it should ship this coming week)

From everything I've read so far, the Nexus 4 seems like a great phone at an unbelievable price, but Google and LG are really shooting themselves in the foot with customer service, shipping on a frustrating not-on-first-come-first-ordered basis and repeated delays.

I think a lot of customers would've been happier if they sold it through Amazon instead.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#23

Post by fungi »

I have a theory :)

Nexus 4 was built with a "defective" qualcomm LTE chip that LG was able to pick up for a bargain. hence the great nexus 4 rock bottom price.

Now LG have exhausted their "defective" chip supply, they need to negotiate a new deal with qualcomm/google.

This is based on a random comment i read fsck knows where explaining how high spec, short run, chinese phones come in to being.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#24

Post by taligent »

pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

The small value transaction is called a pre-auth and yes it is designed to test whether the card works. It's not a big deal in most countries since it just disappears automatically. But IIRC in the UK it doesn't. Google probably figures they can use the same rules in every country. Pretty dumb move.

The reason stores do it this way is because of legal reasons. They can't bill your credit card until it is shipped but yet need to know you have the money before building it.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#25

Post by brandall10 »

ludwigvan wrote: post #19

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined. Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase. I am leaving US on Dec 12, and t…

I know on the xda dev forums plenty of people have complained about it through normal customer service channels (ie. where a person is involved, email/phone). It seems some have found success by logging in to their Google Wallet and canceling that way. Apologies if you've already tried this as it may seem obvious - but there are users claim success in canceling orders locked in a limbo state for weeks and re-ordering and getting a phone from a later allocation.

My theory is not they're trying to be terrible, but that they simply do not have the bandwidth allocated to handle a launch of this size... mistakes du jour.

To Google's credit, it does sound like for those who have received a phone with defects they've been pretty receptive in sending out replacements. I don't know why they have that part of the process covered but not the initial procurement.

I feel blessed my experience wasn't too bad (got a weird shipment notification 6 days before it actually shipped) but the phone itself it mostly spot on.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#26

Post by Lewisham »

mynameishere wrote: post #20
ludwigvan wrote: post #19

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined. Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase. I am leaving US on Dec 12, and t…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback Just call the number on the back of your credit card.

I'm not sure the credit card will perform a chargeback in this case: it's not that Google is misrepresenting their product or the product isn't being delivered, it's that he's changed his mind.

While Google is being extremely uncooperative, that's not enough to warrant a chargeback.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#27

Post by Osiris »

Lewisham wrote: post #26
mynameishere wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback Just call the number on the back of your credit card.

I'm not sure the credit card will perform a chargeback in this case: it's not that Google is misrepresenting their product or the product isn't being delivered, it's that he's changed his mind. While Google is being extremely uncooperative, that's not enough to warrant a chargeback.

Not being issued a refund after returning the device should be grounds for a chargeback. Once you initiate a chargeback the vendors has about 30 days to respond to the chargeback to prove it was a valid charge.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#28

Post by ludwigvan »

subsection1h wrote: post #21
ludwigvan wrote: post #19

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined. Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase. I am leaving US on Dec 12, and t…

Anyone have any advice for canceling the order, is it possible at all? Might your landlord allow you to post a sheet a paper to your front door stating that you refuse delivery? This is what I did to refuse delivery of a 16GB Nexus 7 (I found a 32GB Nexus 7 for a little over $200), and it worked. I didn't need to interact with a UPS driver. That being said, the 16GB Nexus 7 I ordered was delivered to Google on Nov 29…

Thank you, this is what I am going to do, although in my case, the situation is a bit more complex.

The apartment complex I live in receives packages from UPS en masse, and then classifies it according to apartment numbers, so there is a possibility that they might not detect my package before accepting it, but I will ask them to keep an eye on it.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#29

Post by Raphael »

fungi wrote: post #23

I have a theory :) Nexus 4 was built with a "defective" qualcomm LTE chip that LG was able to pick up for a bargain. hence the great nexus 4 rock bottom price. Now LG have exhausted their "defective" chip supply, they need to negotiate a new deal with qualcomm/google. This is based on a random comment i read fsck knows where explaining how high spec, short run, chinese phones come in to being.

Perhaps the LTE radio was defective, but the rest was fine.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#30

Post by asdfaoeu »

Osiris wrote: post #27
Lewisham wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the credit card will perform a chargeback in this case: it's not that Google is misrepresenting their product or the product isn't being delivered, it's that he's changed his mind. While Google is being extremely uncooperative, that's not enough to warrant a chargeback.

Not being issued a refund after returning the device should be grounds for a chargeback. Once you initiate a chargeback the vendors has about 30 days to respond to the chargeback to prove it was a valid charge.

> I'm not sure the credit card will perform a chargeback in this case: it's not that Google is misrepresenting their product or the product isn't being delivered, it's that he's changed his mind.

It is a valid charge, and I'm sure Google won't be too happy when you cancel it on them.

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